How Scuba Works

Popular activities in scuba diving include wreck diving and reef diving. There are numerous dive spots throughout the world, including the U.S. Atlantic coast, California, Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, Hawaii, Australia and the Mediterranean Sea.

To train for scuba diving, you should be in reasonably good physical condition. It would not hurt to have a medical check up and discussion with your physician prior to training. The first step is to take an open water certification course (PADI or NAUI). For this course, you must be at least 10 years old. The course addresses:

Skill training in confined environment - practice diving skills in a pool or other confined body of water

clear a mask that's filled with water

recover a regulator after it has come out of your mouth

put on and take off equipment in the water

perform neutral-buoyancy techniques

establish proper weighting

do a controlled emergency ascent

breathe from a buddy's air supply

Open-water skills - demonstrate the same skills in an open-water environment (river, quarry, lake, ocean). You will make at least four open-water dives as part of your open-water training.

You need your open-water certification card to rent dive equipment. Although you do not need to renew your certification, refresher courses are advised for certified divers who have not gone diving in a long time.

After open-water certification, you may decide to pursue further dive training at several levels:

Amateur levels

advanced training

rescue diving

Professional ratings

master training

dive master

instructor

master scuba trainer

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